Though Oregon's health insurance marketplace will launch Oct. 1 as planned, there's one hitch. People will only be able to immediately purchase health insurance on it with certified insurance agents and "community partners."

The online marketplace won't be fully accessible until mid October -- at the earliest.

The Affordable Care Act set in motion health insurance exchanges for people to buy health insurance, mandated by the federal changes which being next year. Oct. 1 has been the advertised day to start sign-ups.

Fears that the federal health care changes were too fast never stretched to Oregon, which started early setting up its online insurance marketplace, called Cover Oregon. However, state officials say the phased-in launch is just a matter of debugging the new website.

On Oct. 1, Cover Oregon will list agents and community partners who can walk individuals through the complicated new sign-up, the agency announced at its board meeting Thursday.

"We want to make sure we don't overload the system and to make sure we quickly identify and resolve any bugs, but at the same time we want to open Oct. 1," said Cover Oregon spokesperson Lisa Morawski.

In addition to working out kinks, Cover Oregon is also dealing with a $16 million shortfall. The Oregon Health Authority, a sister agency, had expected to fund computer programming for Cover Oregon through June with a $59 million federal grant. But documents show the grant ran out in April, due to a "misprojection" of remaining funds.

Cover Oregon picked up the bills, but to cover them, the agency hopes to win supplemental funding from the federal government. Without more money, the agency faces a major hit to staffing and its publicity campaign to inform people about the changes in health care coverage.

The specific date individuals will be able to buy insurance directly depends on any problems that emerge the first few weeks. Cover Oregon expects that to be mid-October.

So far, Cover Oregon has trained 1,000 agents to help people buy insurance, with more awaiting training before October. There are also 800 trained community partners -- various groups and centers around the state where people can sign up.

People must sign up by Dec. 15 in order to have health coverage by Jan. 1. Enrollment will continue until the end of March, however. The penalty for not buying health insurance for the first year is $95. Many people will be eligible for federal tax credits to help pay for premiums, and information about that will also be spelled out on Cover Oregon's website. Likewise, small businesses also can use the online marketplace to shop for policies and qualify for tax credits.

Cover Oregon expects 217,000 people will buy insurance through the marketplace, despite not fully launching the website Oct. 1, according to agency spokesperson Morawski.

A poll from April found that across the United States, four in 10 Americans did not know the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land and is being implemented.

Morawski said that the outreach team is working on the most effective way to get the word out once the online marketplace is fully up and running which will be further discussed at their September meeting.

"Everybody as of Oct. 1 can begin the process," said Triz delaRosa, Cover Oregon's chief operations officer. "If they want to do the entire process in the first couple of weeks, they're doing that with a partner, with someone who can hold their hand."